English Bay Blues: A Mass Effect Prequel (Shenko)

Chapter 12

Ylena frowned. A bodyguard who doesn't know where the body he's supposed to be guarding is? How odd. "Uh well, I thought you knew. Ms. Zale left with the commandos a little over an hour ago. As far as I know Spectre T'Pelo went with her."

"Really? They've left the ship?" Kaidan couldn't keep the surprise from his voice. "Sorry if I'm surprised by that, but Ms. Zale said she would inform me when we arrived. I know I'm to remain with the ship, but I'm confused as to why she didn't wake me."

"Oh. I see." Ylena said, even though she didn't. The Ambassador certainly didn't seem to take personal safety seriously if she was willing to leave behind her bodyguard. I mean seriously, look at him! She thought, taking in his very human, very male form. Who wouldn't want that body within eyesight at all times? Then again, Ylena thought cattily, the Ambassador IS a matriarch. Maybe such things no longer interested her. She realized he was now staring at her. Oh crap did he just ask her something?

"I'm sorry." She said. "I was lost in thought. Did you just say something?"

Kaidan smiled, the look on her face giving an almost crystal clear indication of where her thoughts had strayed. "I just asked if you knew anything more about the mission? Like what planet this is? Or if Ms. Zale or the Spectre might have left a message for me?"

"Message?" Ylena repeated, her face clouding. "Oh goddess! Sorry! Yes. A message came through for you a few minutes ago. Here," she said bringing up her omni-tool. "I'll send it to you now. I thought the Spectre would have sent it direct but apparently there's some sort of comm scrambler on the planet surface. She sent it via an old ship channel - usually only used in emergencies."

She continued as the message beeped it's arrival to Kaidan's omni-tool. "Don't know what it says though. She's tagged it to your bio-metrics so that only you are able to read it."

Kaidan looked up at her at this. That was odd. He had no idea what Aryana might have sent him, but if it was tagged for his access only it probably wasn't good. "Thank you Ylena. I guess I'd better go see what it says."

He gave her a parting nod as he hurried back to the lift, eager to read Aryana's message. Before the doors slid closed, he had cued up the message on his omni-tool.

"Alenko." Aryana's face filled the screen, her features tense. "Damn bureaucrats, matriarchs - all the same..." She muttered under her breath, forgetting she was recording.

"Right so," she began. "Against all logical reason or argument your infallible boss chose not to send in a recon team before going there herself." Her gaze looked past the screen seemingly searching for something. "Anyway, everything checked out at first. We could see no signs of battle or any electronic signature that might indicate the presence of a ship. Only thing that seemed out of order was our communications. Although it's odd, it isn't alarming. The communication array was visible from our position and appears to be undamaged. Kazra thought it might just be an internal processing problem even though I argued."

Kaidan could see the frustration on Aryana's face. Even in the poor lighting from the planet, her expression was dark, but she was doing her level best to reign it in and relay her message. "Whatever. So anyway the Ambassador and her commandos," She said the last with sarcasm, "Entered the facility without me. I agreed to wait outside while they checked it out."

Kaidan could see she was kicking herself for letting that happen. "And that's when all hell broke loose. I took cover and hid as best I could and still see what was happening. As they entered the building, some damn extremely loud alarm started going off like it was calling down Athame herself, when our entire squad was surrounded by batarians." She paused, her eyes hard. "Yeah you heard me. Batarians."

Aryana broke off again, looking out past the screen she was speaking into. After a moment, when she continued, her voice had dropped to a whisper.

"Anyway our group had no chance. The batarians disarmed the lot of them and marched them all inside. I haven't been able to learn much else but I'm running out of time. We've got about half an hour before they send a boarding party back to our ship. So..."

She paused, clearly unhappy with what she planned to say next. "Alenko, I need you out here. I need backup if I'm going to get this done and you're all I've got. I don't like this, as I'm sure you can see, but I'm out of options. There's too many of them and the Ambassador took every commando we had on board with her, including the captain."

"What?!" Kaidan exclaimed. The captain of the ship wasn't here? Well shit. Kaidan understood Aryana's frustration instantly. Once the batarians boarded their ship they wouldn't be going anywhere.

"Yeah I'm sure you get it now." Aryana drawled sarcastically. "So now you know. Don't bother alerting the crew, they likely wouldn't believe you anyhow. Even with my Spectre authority. So get your butt moving. I've attached coordinates to this message. Make it quick but quiet. I'm pretty sure none of them are outside the building but better safe than sorry. Hurry Alenko,"she added. "You're no good to me dead if the batarians get you first."

The message blinked out to be replaced by a set of glowing coordinates that now filled the screen.

Well, Kaidan thought, his mind racing as the lift descended to the cargo bay. Things had just gotten a lot more dangerous. He hoped he was up for this - batarians and an alien planet.

He pinched himself as the doors slid open. Nope - definitely not dreaming. Suiting up, he grabbed a pistol from the armoury before stepping into the airlock. He hoped he wouldn't need to use it.